(Twitter needs to come up with a solution to Donald Trump's tweetsAlex Wong/Getty Images)
Well, here we are.
Although it feels like it's been years, it was only a few short days ago that the president of the United States used Twitter to post a video that showed him tackling "CNN" to the ground.
At best, it was a childish meme meant to delight his base. At worst, it was a call to harm journalists.
Either way, it was the president using Twitter like an immature anonymous troll.
It was the CNN tweet that dominated the news cycle for most of the week. Not health care. Not tax reform. Not infrastructure or North Korea or cybersecurity. It was Donald Trump using his favorite platform to target a new perceived enemy that has nothing to do with his political agenda.
But that's almost besides the point.
The result of Trump's tweet wasn't just a new wave of populist anger directed at the media. It also kicked off a cascade of abuse and harassment on Twitter towards journalists, especially CNN journalists, and anyone loosely associated with them. True story: CNN anchor Brian Stelter retweeted a photo I posted of the Fourth of July fireworks over New York City and I received countless abusive and spammy messages. Apparently, even fireworks are "fake news" if they're shared by a journalist.
It was even scarier in the real-world, with Trump supporters reportedly making a flood of harassing phone calls to a CNN reporter's wife and parents.
All of that because our president couldn't control what he types into his iPhone.
Twitter's long history of abuse on its platform and its failure to adequately tamp it down isn't a new story. What is new is that after the unexpected outcome of last year's election, we now have a president who repeatedly violates Twitter's harassment policy, yet is allowed to continue tweeting away. Others have been kicked off Twitter for far less, but Twitter's stance is that there are important political and newsworthy reasons for keeping the Trump account active.
The Milo standard
Fair enough. But that stance also ignores the viral effects of an abusive tweet from the president and how his actions on Twitter have created more abuse on the platform. It reminds me a lot of the argument Twitter used to remove tech-blogger-turned-right-wing-pundit Milo Yiannopoulos from Twitter last year, saying his attacks on SNL cast member Leslie Jones led to "an uptick in the number of accounts" that violated its abuse and harassment policies. As a result, Yiannopoulos was permanently banned, along with some of his troll followers.